


Satisfied

by selinameyer



Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fix It Fic, Smut, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, alternative universe, amy doesn't get an abortion!, pre-season 5 selina/amy/dan characterizations, trying to undo the damage from season 7
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-02-10 16:41:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18664288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/selinameyer/pseuds/selinameyer
Summary: Set during 7.02, complete and total canon divergence except for two things. Selina & Tom make an arrangement post the discussion in the kitchen; Amy decides she doesn't want an abortion.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's safe to say that everyone is pretty much completely and utterly dissatisfied with the way season 7 is going and at this rate, it's probably going to be a disappointing series finale too. Which I'm going to be honest, breaks my heart. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Anyway, this is an attempt to try and reconcile everything that's been broken and should have been handled a different way by the writers. I'm going to be upfront and say right out that this story is mainly about the women. While obviously there's going to be the relationship storylines with their respective idiots, the disintegration of their relationship under this era of the series has been the hardest part to watch and I can't stand it anymore! So here we are!

“No, Gary, I don’t want the fucking bath bomb!” She shouted as she slammed the bathroom door behind her, dropping her robe and approaching the hot bath that had been prepared for her. She reached the tub and rolled her eyes. For some reason after eavesdropping on her conversation with Tom, Gary had felt the need to fill her bubble bath with  _ rose petals _ . 

“You have got to be fucking shitting me.” She murmured as she slid into the water and the petals immediately clung to her skin. Selina plucked a few off of her arm, throwing them onto the floor before leaning her head back against the rim of the tub.   
  


Fucking men.   
  


She  _ knew  _ his timing was deliberate. He could have decided to make that admission at any other fucking point in the evening and he had  _ waited  _ until she was about to make that goddamn motherfucking marshmallow speech to pitch herself to Felix.  He had thrown her completely off track and she had made a total ass of herself. It was one of the most humiliating moments of her entire life.

She hated the fact that she had been so affected by what he had said to her. She hated that it left her with her palms sweating and her heart racing. That it had made her mouth dry and her stomach turn. 

The worst of it was that there wasn’t a single doubt in her mind that everything he had said to her was fucking true.   
  


Tom _ loved _ her.

She had known it when she had shouted it at him in the red room of the White House almost a year earlier but hearing him admit the words himself…

She couldn’t stop thinking about the way it felt when his hands were on her hips as they had kissed in the kitchen. How right it felt to caress his face as they breathed one another in, leaning their foreheads together, breathing each other in. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so  _ wanted _ . 

 

Selina was pulled from her reverie at the sound of rapping at the door of her suite.   
  


“Gary, you can tell whoever it is to fuck off.”

  
The knocking continued.  
  


“GARY!” 

“What good is he for?” She murmured to herself as she stepped out of the bath and grabbed her robe off of the floor.  


“Alright, stop fucking knocking!” 

She swung open the door and her heart dropped to her stomach.   
  


Tom.   
  


Instinctively she reached for him, wrapping her arms around his neck as they kissed, his hands sliding down to her waist as he pushed her back into the room, shutting the door behind him.

 

“I meant it.” He said as he pulled away from her, tilting her chin up so that she could meet his gaze. 

“I know.” She said quietly, her thumb caressing his cheek as she pressed her forehead to his. She kissed him softly, quietly moaning into his mouth as his hands slid down to her upper thighs. 

  
Selina shrieked when he lifted her, wrapping her legs around him before carrying her over to the bed in the middle of the room.

She felt the silk of her robe shift as he untied it.

“Were you hoping I’d show up?” He smirked as he ran the pad of his thumb against her nipple.

“I was in the bath, you fucking pervert.” She responded, shaking her head as she rolled her eyes.

  
Selina moaned as his mouth found her breast, arching her back into him as he slid a hand between her legs. She shifted up against the headboard, spreading her legs as he flicked his tongue against her nipple. She gasped when she felt him push two fingers into her. She pulled his face away from her chest, finding his mouth. She wrapped a hand around his neck, digging her nails into his skin as she kissed him, biting at his lower lip. Tom’s free hand found her breast as he increased the pace of his fingers, curling them into her, his thumb against her clit.

  
She moaned quietly into his mouth as she felt herself clamp down onto his fingers as she came. She reached between them and grabbed his hand, bringing his fingers up to her mouth and sucking on them. 

* * *

 

He watched as she sucked at his fingers before bringing her hands to his chest to undo the buttons of his shirt. She sat up on her haunches, running her hands over his chest before reaching for the button of his jeans.

“Don’t get your hopes up -- I am not sucking you off.” She smirked as she pulled at his zipper. “Take off your clothes.” She continued before completely sliding off her robe and raising her eyebrows suggestively,  just as she had when they kissed earlier in the evening. He couldn’t help but chuckle as he undressed and reached for her, pulling her against him as he leaned back into the bed.    
  


They kissed, lazily, neither in any sort of rush. Neither would say it but they both knew that another moment like this would not occur between them again, at least not for a long time. Selina was warm and soft pressed against him as his fingers circled the small of her back. She smelled like roses.    
  


Tom felt Selina’s hand against his cock, her fingers running across his shaft before running her thumb over his tip. She shifted above him and slowly guided him into her, settling her hands against his chest as she adjusted herself. He slid his hands down to grip her ass as she slowly ground her hips against his. He gave her ass a firm smack as she found a steady rhythm, watching as she closed her eyes and tilted her head back, her nails gently scratching at his chest. She let out a quiet pant as she moved above him and he brought a hand up to one of her breasts, reveling in the whimper that left her as she brought her hand over his to as she quickened her pace.    
  


It was the first time they were actually able to have sex without the prospect of being interrupted and he had every intention of making the most of it. He slipped a hand between their bodies, finding her clit and watched as she gasped, arching towards him. He smirked as he felt her body tense, Selina’s fingers digging into his bicep as she came. She collapsed onto his chest, burying her face into his neck. Her breath was warm against him and he wrapped an arm around the small of her back, before flipping them over, and hooking her leg over his shoulder. 

 

“ _ God. _ ”  Selina moaned throatily as he pushed into her, hooking an arm around his shoulders and pressing herself against him, giving him a better angle. He pulled out slowly, knowing that it would drive her absolutely insane when he entered her at the same pace. 

 

“Did you pop a little blue pill before coming in here?” She teasingly murmured against his mouth as he increased his pace. 

“All natural.” He responded as he thrust into her hard. Selina let out a breathy whimper and he watched as she took a deep breath, swallowing hard.

“This could happen a lot more frequently.” He said smirking as he brought both hands down to her hips, thrusting deeper into her. 

“Shut the fuck up.” She responded, kissing him and running her tongue along his lower lip as she ran her nails against his shoulder blades.    
  


Tom groaned into her mouth as he felt her clench around him.   
  


“Oh, do you like that?” She murmured huskily against his lips before doing it again.

“Fuck, Selina.” 

“Yeah, that’s right.”

He felt her wrap her other leg around his waist, her ankle pressing against the small of his back as he came, burying his face into her neck. 

* * *

  
Selina felt Tom slide his fingers over clit and she slipped a hand over his, stopping him.

 

“Are you objecting to another orgasm?” He asked raising an eyebrow.

“Oh no, you’re going to make me cum again before the sun comes up, but what I’m objecting to right now is a raw clit.”

  
She watched as he laughed before dropping down beside her and pulling her into him. She hated the fact that the sound of his laugh made her heart flutter. She hated the fact that the sensation of his fingers running through her hair was something she wouldn’t mind feeling more often. 

  
“So about this happening more frequently…” Tom started and she cut him off before he could continue.

“One of us is going to have to drop out of the race eventually, so what if…”

“What if, he wonders…”

“What if we just let the people actually decide who they want? Then when one of us drops…”

“This can happen more frequently?”

“Or it could happen more frequently regardless…” 

“Or we could get caught.”

“Or who literally gives a shit? The entire country knows we’ve already fucked before, do you really think anyone would be surprised if we fucked again?”

“If you ask nicely I don’t see why something can’t be arranged.” 

“God you are so fucking irritating, do you know that?” She responded, rolling her eyes as she gave him a playful shove away from her.

“Yet you love me, don’t you?”

“Shut the fuck up, Tom.”

* * *

 

Sleeping with Dan was a fucking mistake. She should have known better than to trust him, than to actually believe that he had slow sperm, to actually think it was a smart idea to skip the morning after pill because the chances of getting were so minuscule that it would just be a complete waste of forty dollars. 

Scheduling an abortion, that had been a mistake. As Amy sat in her room, knees pressed to her chest, she knew that while Dan would never fucking change, this was probably the only chance she would get to do something for herself and prove everyone else wrong. She wasn’t going to get an abortion, Dan and Selina’s opinions be damned. 

She wanted this baby. The thought of having kids had been weighing on her mind for the last few years and while this was not how she had intended for it to happen, how could she let the chance slip away? She could do this on her own. She didn’t need Dan and after having him tell her that he was about to fuck a nineteen year old with the same name she wanted to give their child, she didn’t  _ want  _  Dan in the picture. 

  
What she did want was to think of a new name and schedule an ultrasound.

Amy wondered how weird it would be if she called the abortion clinic and changed her appointment from an abortion to an ultrasound and  realized how fucking embarrassing that would be for her in the end. The best option would be to find a clinic in the same town as their next campaign stop and schedule something there. 

“Men are fucking awful.” She said to herself as she buried herself into the pillows and pulled the comforter around her, a hand moving down to her abdomen. 

“We’ll be fine.” She murmured quietly, unsure who exactly she was talking to. 

* * *

  
“We’re sharing a ride.” Dan said as he pulled up beside her as they disembarked the campaign’s private jet at Iowa Executive Airport. He watched as Amy avoided responding, her eyes glued to the screen of her iPhone as they headed towards arrivals.

“Cat got your tongue?” He asked, giving her a playful nudge as they walked in tandem.

  
She visibly flinched.

  
“Don’t touch me.” 

“Oh, pregnancy hormones got you feeling extra frisky, don’t they? Good thing you won’t be dealing with those for too much longer.” He replied, raising an eyebrow. 

“God, you are such a fucking asshole.” Amy scoffed, shaking her head as she stopped dead in her tracks. “I did some thinking last night, after you know, I told you I wanted to settle down with you, and you didn’t bother listening because you were too busy waiting to shove your dick into a nineteen year-old’s mouth because you’re having some sort of midlife crisis because Felix’s little sex toys didn’t find you attractive but that’s besides my fucking point; I did some thinking and you know what? I’m not going to have an abortion. I’m going to keep this baby, find a different name since you fucking ruined Meagan for me, and I’m letting you know out of fucking courtesy, because frankly, I  _ don’t  _ want you in the picture. I don't  _ need  _ you in the picture. We’ll be perfectly fine without you.”

  
He could see the tears threatening to spill out of the corners of her eyes and he looked around to see Gary, Selina, Ben, and Kent watching them. Gary had a hand over his mouth in shock and the look on Selina’s face bordered between concern and amusement. The other two were a mix of indifference and disdain.  
  


“Can we talk about this somewhere privately?” He hissed, grabbing her by the elbow.

 

The last thing he needed was to be on the cover of some Midwestern tabloid in a story about getting into a screaming match with the mother of his illegitimate child in the middle of an airport walkway. 

 

“Do not fucking touch me!” She screamed in response, pulling away from his reach.

“Come on, Amy.”

“Dan, leave her alone. You’re causing a goddamn scene.” Ben said as he came between the two. 

“Ames, you’ll ride with me.” Selina said from several feet away as Gary pulled a handkerchief out of the leviathan and wrapped an arm around Amy before pulling her away.

“You’re an asshole.” Gary mouthed as he turned to look at him as he walked away.   
  


He hadn’t even been the one to do anything to cause a scene to begin with yet _he_ was the problem here, not Amy, the person who had started shrieking at him in the middle of an airport  like a goddamn banshee.  
  
He didn’t even understand where the outburst came from — it wasn’t as if this had been the first time he had made any abortion comments, in fact he had occasionally snuck them in here and there when he got the chance, hoping she would take the hint.

He didn’t want to be a father. Kids were a burden and a hassle that he just wasn’t willing to make work. He knew Amy. He knew this was the pregnancy hormones and that soon enough she would realize that this wasn’t what she wanted either. He just hoped that she would figure it out before it was too late to do anything about it. 

* * *

 

“Amy, you can do better than Dan.” Selina said as they sat side by side in the back of the towncar taking them back to the campaign offices. “There’s no reason you should be letting that perforated asshole and his Slim Jim dick get you wound up like that, especially not in the public eye. Last thing I need is people thinking there’s an unhinged woman as apart of my staff.”

 

Amy brought her fingers up to the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she wiped a few stray tears away. It would be great if she could stop fucking crying, but it seemed she was too worked up for that to be a possibility.   
  


“Gary, cover your ears.” She said quietly before opening her eyes. “I’m being serious. Cover your fucking ears.”

She glared at him until his hands flew up to his ears and he started humming to himself. What she was about to say could go one of two ways, and the last thing she wanted was for anyone else to bear witness to any of it and try to hold it against her in the future.

“Look ma’am. I am going to be as upfront with you as I fucking can be. I’ve been working for you for the last fifteen years, give or take a few months. I have put up with all kinds of bullshit from you. I’ve been beat down and berated, especially these last three years. I fucking get it, okay? I shouldn’t have quit during your last campaign. That was a mistake. I thought you’d realize that when I came back on election night because I couldn’t bare to not be able to watch it all play out with you and everyone else, but I guess not. I’m sorry, alright? It was a mistake. I should have completely ridden it out with you. I’m trying to do that this time around, I really am but you’re making it pretty fucking difficult.  My working with you has been the fucking catalyst of my entire goddamn political career, but I cannot have it with your fucking hazing anymore. I’m the only person in any room that is willing to go at bat for you, even when you’re being a monstrous fucking cunt.”

  
She watched as Selina pursed her lips and gave a small nod before responding.

  
“First of all, enough fucking crying. I get enough of that from Catherine and it would be a shame for me to start thinking of you like I think of her. I’ve always liked you better than her.”

  
Amy furrowed her brow, wondering how treating her _ worse _ than she treated Catherine could possibly mean she liked her better.   
  


“Secondly...you’ve made a few points….You are the only one who isn’t a goddamn chickenshit. The only woman on the team and you’ve got more balls than all of the men combined. Goddamn pussies. But this campaign can’t afford to lose you, especially not when we can spin your little bundle of….joy in our favor.” Selina responded, perking up.

Any sighed with relief, realizing that this was the best case scenario for her. She kicked Gary in the shin to let him know he could stop his fucking humming and uncover his ears. She chuckled when her yelled in response, grabbing his knee.

“Now about that baby...”   


“You’re  keeping it? Oh, that’s —“

“This is a pussy to pussy conversation, Gary. I know you act like a pussy, but not actually having one doesn’t bare you privy to this conversation.” Selina said as she held up a hand to silence him. “As I was saying, Ames, about that baby. Do you remember how I had to cut the whole thing about universal childcare from my last run? We could use your situation to bring that back into discussion with this run.”   
  


There was a spark in Selina’s eye that Amy hadn’t seen in a while, and having the prospect of something good to actually contribute to this goddamn campaign actually made her feel like she wasn’t completely expendable.    
  


“So we’ll push paid leave for new mothers and funding for programs that will help assist single mothers who are struggling to find affordable childcare.”

“Also abortion. We’ll make it very clear that this campaign supports a woman’s right to choose because ultimately it’s her body her choice.”

“You literally told me yesterday that you didn’t spend your life defending a woman’s right to choose for me to choose this.”

“Yeah, well that was then, this is now. We’re turning over a new leaf aren’t we? It’s that or I go back to being a monstrous cunt.”

“Point taken.”

“On the bright side, mommy’s got a brand new scapegoat for any issues that may rise along in the campaign.”

“Catherine?” Gary asked as he handed them both a water bottle.

“No you goddamn moron. Dan.”

  
Amy couldn’t help but laugh.  She had known Selina long enough to know better than to immediately trust her word. She wasn’t naive. In order for her to believe that she would no longer taking the brunt of Selina’s frustrations, she would have to actually see someone else experience it, and if she really was going to use as Dan her new scapegoat, then it would be utterly satisfying to watch and she could not wait to watch Selina turn her wrath on him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didn't hate the series finale because it was everything i expected would happen lol so the only things i was mad about were the fact that dan/amy had no resolution and that selina/amy had a moment of their old dynamic for a whole 2 minutes before they took a blow torch to that. oh and don't get me started on the betrayal of the century. but that's what fix it fics are for! to heal the whole in the soul and living in denial is funner! i haven't had a moment to outline this yet between school and having gone to that 92Y conversation with the cast so please be patient with my updates! i promise i won't abandon this, and i promise i will update the fics i have abandoned soon too!! anyway thanks to those of you who left comments and make sure you leave comments and kudos as you continue reading!

“You stupid fucking snake!” Selina hissed as she pulled Tom into her dressing room after the debate. She had noticed him storm off after his ploy to throw her under the bus had crashed and burned, ending in the complete opposite of what he had wanted. She had won the debate my a total landslide, utterly eviscerating him  _ and _ Kemi, the only other candidates in the race who were potential threats to her campaign.

“You thought you were going to fucking sabotage me? Because that worked so well the first time, didn’t it? Are you ever going to learn, old man?” She continued as his hands moved down to her hips, pushing her against the dressing table. 

“Maybe I get off on trying to humiliate you in front of the entire country?” He responded as he hoisted her onto the counter, wrapping her legs around his waist and sliding a hand up her thigh.

“Are you angry that you’re losing?” She purred, toying with his tie, wrapping it around her hand and drawing his face toward hers. “Are you starting to realize that maybe you’re not going to be President anytime soon? It’s driving you insane, isn’t it?” She gave him a soft peck before releasing his tie and smoothing it back down. 

“The only one who’ll be going insane here is you.”  He responded, sliding a hand up her leg and caressing her thigh.

“It’s telling that you’re fucking your deputy chief of staff and yet you keep coming back to little old me…Her snatch isn’t good enough for you, huh?”

“Does it make you jealous?” He responded as he pushed her underwear aside and pushed two fingers into her.

 

Selina bit down on her lip, swallowing hard before responding.

 

“What am I going to be jealous about? The fact that a thirty something year-old can’t get any dick her own age so she’s resorted to fucking someone who’s old enough to be her father? That’s pretty pathetic if you ask me.” 

She moaned, leaning her head back against the mirror as she felt Tom’s hand push her thighs farther apart. 

* * *

Watching Selina manage to win the debate after Tom had viciously attempted to throw her under the bus was exhilarating. Witnessing Buddy come in at the bottom of the polling results afterwards was so goddamn satisfying that Amy was buzzing with excited energy. He had barely been able to get in more than a few words in response to the questions asked, being completely unable to fight for himself as Selina, Tom, and Kemi led the discussions.   
  


At least one of her exes was getting what he fucking deserved.

 

“Has anyone seen my mom?” Catherine asked as Amy entered the green room. 

 

The debate had ended over an hour ago and after spending half an hour making nice with the audience members, Selina was nowhere to be found.

 

“Probably in her dressing room?” Amy responded as she checked her phone, swiping away a notification from Dan, whose contact name she had changed to ‘irritant’. She watched as Catherine started to make her way out of the green room.

“No, I’ll go check on her. She’s in a good mood because she won the debate and if you go in there and start whining about how late it is, and how you need to go home you’ll just ruin everything for all of us, so just sit back down and eat a cracker or something.” She commanded as she held motioned towards the couch. 

Catherine did not hesitate to follow instructions and immediately sat back down, Marjorie patting her hand in attempt to comfort her. 

Amy walked out of the green room and made her way towards the secluded hallway that contained the dressing rooms. Selina, having been the front-runner of the Presidential candidates had the biggest room, located at the end of the hall. 

 

“Ma’am,” She said pushing the door open as she pocketed her phone. “ _ Oh my god! _ ” She shrieked, covering her eyes as she realized too late that it would have been smart to knock first. 

 

In the fifteen years she had worked for Selina, this was the first time she had ever walked in on her boss getting absolutely railed by one of her rivals. 

 

“Jesus fucking  _ Christ _ , Amy! Haven’t you ever heard of fucking knocking first?” Selina shouted as Amy quickly shut the door behind her before opening her eyes. She heard a loud thud against the door,  made by what she assumed as a shoe as she quickly made her way back down the hallway.

She knew there had probably been a few moments in the last few years where she had come close to having had this happened, but the fact that she had walked in on Selina with a leg propped against  _ Tom James’s  _ shoulder was almost too much to bare. While she hoped the image wasn’t burned onto her retinas, she couldn’t help but burst into laughter the moment she was far enough away. 

Amy leaned against the wall as she took a wheezing breath, trying to contain her uncontrollable laughter as she wiped a few tears away from her eyes. She regained composure and straightened herself out before making her way back into the green room.

 

“She’ll be done in a few minutes, she was just....trying to decompress. It’s been an eventful night for her. If you’re in such a rush to get out Catherine, I’m pretty sure your Secret Service Agents can get you back to the hotel in once piece.”

“No, I want to congratulate her for doing so well on the debate. I didn’t actually think she’d manage to win.” She responded, shaking her head.

It was interesting how a win for her mother could make her do a complete one-eighty on her thoughts of the campaign. Up until now, Catherine had done nothing but bitch and moan at how miserable this campaign made her, as if there was ever any reason for her to come along to begin with. If she were a child, Amy would be able to understand to her incessant need to be wherever her mother was during the campaign, but at twenty-six, she had the option of staying behind in New York.  She had never seen someone claim to hate their mother so much yet be so unable to bare not being in the midsts of the campaign buzz.

“Well kid, you’re not the only one who came out of this surprised.” Ben responded as he took a chug out of a water bottle Amy knew was filled with Vodka. “She’s right though, your generation does need to man-up, and you need to stop whining so much.”

“America still doesn’t like you, Catherine.” Kent added, not looking up from the data on his iPad. “If you could do something about your hair, that might help your mother’s polling numbers.” 

“Unfortunately Bent is correct.” Amy said as she dropped down into the space between Gary and Kent on the couch. “I think your mom’s heard enough congrats for the time being, yours can wait.”

* * *

“I’ll see you in South Carolina.” Selina said as she slid off the counter and pulled down her dress.

“I’d have thought getting caught would have been the ultimate turn off.” Tom responded as she shoved her underwear into the breast pocket of his suit.

“A little something for your spank bank.” She retorted as she patted at his chest. She felt herself freeze as he put a hand over hers. 

“It’ll make a fond memory. I’ll see you at the primary.” He replied, bringing her hand up to his lips.

 

Selina absolutely hated the fact that it made her chest hurt to watch him leave. She was too goddamn old for this feelings bullshit. She had an election to win and there was no way in hell she was going to let whatever it was that she was feeling get in the way of her endgame. 

Winning the Presidency was the only thing that mattered to her, everyone else be fucking damned. 

 

“Ma’am?” 

 

She snapped out of her reverie at the sound of Amy’s voice and the gentle rapping against the door.

 

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” She responded as she headed out of the room, nearly colliding with the younger woman as she pulled the door open.

“So how long has that been going on?” Amy asked, getting straight to the point.

“Since Colorado.” She responded as they made their way back towards the green room.

“Is it going to happen again?”

“Listen Ames, you can’t tell anyone about this. Not even Gary. We keep this between just us girls, okay? I need to know that I can trust you with this.” 

“Why the fuck would I tell anyone? Word of this gets out and both of your campaigns tank and let’s be honest, the longer the both of you stay in the race, the more likely one of you is to end up on the other’s cabinet, and I know you’d rather be Secretary of State than Veep again.”

“Well, it’s a good thing that’s not going to be the case for me, because I’m going to be the motherfucking President, Ames.”

“That is the goal, ma’am. Whatever it takes.”

“Yeah, whatever it takes…”   _   
_

* * *

It was nearly two a.m. by the time they’d managed to get back to the hotel and with it being a Monday night, room service had stopped serving at eleven p.m., which Amy had found to be absolutely fucking ridiculous. 

What was the point of having room service if there was a cut-off time? Did that really help any hotel keep their ratings up with their customers? 

She scrolled through her phone as she walked down to the vending machines, hellbent on leaving an angry review on the hotel’s website. She usually wouldn’t care to make a fuss, but she was three months pregnant and knew she was going to have to spend at least five dollars from some garbage from the vending machine to satiate the growling of her stomach. 

  
“So Selina and Tom…”

  
She was so started by the sound of Dan’s voice in her ear that she threw her hand up and smacked him square in the nose with her phone.

  
“Fuck, Amy!” He groaned in response.

“You should know better than to come up behind unsuspecting women, you fucking creep.” She responded not feeling an ounce of pity for him. He deserved it.

If she could have hit him harder, she would have. 

 

She pulled out her wallet and inserted her card into the chip reader.  It beeped twice before reading “ _ CARD READER UNAVAILABLE” _ . 

“Fuck this.” She groaned, banging her fist against the vending machine.

“I’ve got cash.” Dan responded, pulling out his wallet and slipping a ten into the machine. “Have at it.”

“Thanks…” She replied before punching in several different options and waiting for them to dispense.

“So they’re fucking, right?”

“What?”

“Selina and Tom.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh come on, Ames, the arguing at the debate? How much more domestic could they fucking get? That’s the kind of bickering that happens when you’ve been balls deep in someone more than once.”

  
Amy couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

  
“You’re fucking disgusting, do you know that? She’s our boss, Dan.”

“And? You’re suddenly going to forget the way she treated you for the last two years because you’re mad at me? You think that Selina’s gonna be there for you when you need someone? As if she’s capable of actually caring about anyone other than herself for more than two minutes?”

“The difference between you and Selina is that she actually fucking  _ apologized _ to me Dan. I know that’s not a word that’s in your vocabulary, seeing as you only fucking care about people when you can benefit from them. If you hurt someone, well too bad for that person because you’re never going to own up to it, even if they fucking tell you you hurt them. Even if it’s someone who you actually want in your life. At least she’s owned up to the way she treated me and she’s made an effort to treat me better.”

“What the fuck do you want me to apologize for?” 

“The fact that you’re asking me what I want you to apologize for is enough goddamn proof that you really don’t care about anyone other than yourself.”

“Is this about me wanting you to get an abortion? Is that what you’re still so pissed about? That was like, three weeks ago.”

“That’s exactly what I’m fucking pissed about! You had the audacity to tell me what to do with my body, when you’re the reason this fucking happened in the first place? You fucking told me you couldn’t have kids, Dan. Yet here I am, three months fucking pregnant with  _ your  _ kid! And it’s not even about the fact that you said I should get an abortion. It’s about the fact that I said we should settle down and you went and fucked a  _ nineteen year-old _ . No one has ever made me feel as fucking disposable as you have, Dan. Do you know what it’s like to have someone you care about toss you aside like yesterday’s fucking trash?”

She was could feel her blood boil from the rage coursing through her as she grit her teeth and took a deep breath.

 

“Good night, Dan.” She said as she collected her snacks from the dispenser.

“Amy, wait.” 

There was something in his voice that made her want to stay. 

  
She ignored it.  

* * *

  
“Dan, you’re being reassigned.” 

Dan looked up from his phone as Selina walked into the conference room, Gary at her heels.

“Reassigned to what, exactly?”

“We need someone to keep an eye on Catherine, with this whole ‘postpartum depression’ thing she’s got going on.” Selina continued, putting up air quotes as she spoke.

“Isn’t that Marjorie’s job, as her girlfriend?”

“As my body double, Marjorie is an  _ essential  _ member of Team Meyer, Dan. You either accept this reassignment or you’re out of a job. It’s up to you.”

“Are you shitting me?”

“First of all, watch your tone. Second of all, it’s babysit Catherine or find a new job. It’s simple as that. After that scene  _ you  _ caused at the airport two weeks ago, I don’t want you in the public eye as a part of this campaign for the next few weeks. I want you out of the picture until I’ve decided I want you back around. It’s simple.”

“So let me get this right, Amy, the one who actually caused a scene at the airport gets a promotion and I get used as a scapegoat for your sudden feminista manifesto and get demoted?” 

“Amy’s pregnant with your spawn, so I think she’s suffered enough. You on the other hand are one more negative inflection away from being out of a fucking job completely.”

As frustrating as this was, at the current moment Dan couldn’t afford to be out of a job. He knew his best option was to take the reassignment until he knew he had a back-up position somewhere else -- CNN, CBS, another campaign -- and then he could completely abandoned what was going to be an absolute train-wreck of a campaign.  There was no way Selina was going to win the nomination and if this was how he was going to be treated, the last thing he wanted was to be a part of what was bound to be a national embarrassment.

  
“Fine.”

“Perfect!” Selina responded, smiling.

“Yeah, right.” He retorted, rolling his eyes.

“You were going to start tomorrow, but I don’t like your attitude, so you can leave now. Marjorie will let you know of Catherine’s current whereabouts and what the deal with little Richard is. Grab your shit and get out.” 

He watched as Selina turned her attention to the packet in front of her, glasses on the bridge of her nose as she flipped through it. 

“Did I stutter?” She snapped after a moment, not bothering to look up at him.

“Bye-bye, Dan.” Amy chuckled as she gave him a wave from across the table. 

* * *

“Are we sure he’s not having a sympathetic pregnancy, Ames? I thought women were the ones who were too emotional to work in politics, but it seems like Dan may be crying in the bathroom right now. Sad, don’t you think?” 

“Well, his testosterone levels are lower than average, so it makes sense that he’s going through the changes at thirty-nine. I feel bad for the poor intern who ends up being his next creampie.” Amy retorted, chuckling. 

Amy couldn’t stand to be alone in the same room with him for more than thirty seconds at a time. Any time they were alone together for longer than that it ultimately ended in an argument and as much as she hated him at the moment, the arguments only hurt in the end. 

She wasn’t in the position to torture Dan but watching someone who  _ was  _ in that position do it on her behalf was nice. He was finally reaping what he had sown for years and she was so glad to be able to witness it from the sidelines. The satisfaction of watching Dan storm out of the conference room like a teenager who had been sent to his room by his mother was something that Amy knew would bring her joy for weeks to come.  

The best part of it all was that she knew that she wouldn’t have to worry about running into him for at least two weeks and that brought her more peace of mind than anything else. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trying to fix what the writers broke, re: dan's characterization, proved to be harder than i thought it would be, but i think this chapter is the beginning of getting back the character that i didnt want dead. will try to update sooner than the wait between chapters 2 and 3 but i've got 3 weeks of the summer semester left and a vacation and moving so please bear with me! as always thanks for your comments and kudos and hearing from you guys is always greatly appreciated.

One day on Catherine duty was enough to make Dan want to blow his fucking brains out.    
  


She was fucking  _ insufferable _ .     
  


He didn’t doubt that she was depressed -- he had spent the better part of the last decade working with Selina, who pretended she was mentally stable. Everyone on Team Meyer knew the dosage on her antidepressants had been doubled right before she had announced her decision to run again. Actually, Amy and Ben were the only two who had known, and Amy had told Dan in confidence, and Kent would have figured it out on his own with his innate ability to oddly read people. But Selina’s method of coping with her mental illness was one that made her a  _ little  _ easier to be around -- Catherine on the other hand had no method of coping other than to spending the days moping around whatever the venue of the day was.   
  


If he could get her to see a therapist so that she could whine to someone else all day, it would be a lot easier to spend his time babysitting her.    
  


It wasn’t even fair that he was the one stuck doing this just because Amy was suddenly Selina’s pet again. It was blatant nepotism at its finest.  He could quit this campaign if he really wanted to. He could join Kemi Talbot’s campaign, or Tom’s, or  _ Jonah’ _ s if he was really desperate.   


But he was comfortable where he was and he knew that if he could manage to get back in Amy’s good graces, he would be back with everyone else.    
  


In order to do that though, he would have to make peace with her decision. He would have to accept that she was going to bring this child into the world that was half of his DNA. If that kid looked anything like him, that would absolutely lead to speculation from people outside of their inner circle, and D.C. was full of people hungry for their fifteen minutes of fame; there was no doubt in his mind that at some point someone would let it out that he was the father of this illegitimate child. While his career would not suffer much for it as he was the definition of a white privileged male, it was just something that he didn’t want to have to deal with down the line. 

 

He didn’t even get a real chance to think about whether or not he actually wanted to be a part of the process. Amy had sprung this pregnancy on him and immediately expected him to decide whether or not he wanted to be a part of it, without giving him a moment to even breathe. Not being a part of the process  _ wasn’t  _ going to bother him -  as much as he would tell people it didn’t. What did bother him is that his choice to be a part of it was taken from him completely.  He was beginning to understand that in telling Amy to get an abortion, without actually letting her express her feelings about the situation first, he had done the same as she had later done to him. 

  
Maybe he  _ was  _ wrong, but did she really think he wouldn’t need a few weeks to at least try to get some of his less admirable qualities out of his system? 

 

The other thing that was keeping him there was the one person who had been the catalyst of everything to begin with. 

 

He and Amy were a _team_. 

 

As opposed as she had been to Selina having hired him nearly a decade ago, they both worked better (and smarter), when they were able to bounce ideas off of one another. The last eight years had proven that, whether they were working for Selina, or lobbying for Purcell -- they were more successful together than they were apart. While that could be argued by others, one thing that Dan knew to be true about when they were working together, was that he was a lot less fucking miserable when he had her around.

Was that really something that was worth losing? 

 

Dan was pulled from his reverie by the sound of Little Richard screaming from one of the other rooms in the hotel suite.   


He had been briefed by Marjorie about the methods she and Catherine were using to raise their son, and every single one of them was absolutely absurd. The last thing he was going to do was enable this kid to be a spoiled fucking brat, and their method of not saying ‘no’ was going to bite them in the ass when their kid grew up to be an entitled asshole.   


He stood from the chair he’d been occupying in the living room and pushed open the door to Catherine’s room. There was no point in knocking when he knew that the only thing he was going to walk in on was her buried under the covers. As much as Catherine hated being compared to her mother, at the end of the day there was no denying she was Selina’s daughter -- sleeping for most of the day was always the first sign that there was something wrong with Selina that was outside of the normal realm of things wrong with her. 

 

“Your kid is screaming for you.”     
  


“I can hear him. Let him scream. He’ll fall asleep.” She mumbled in response from beneath what he assumed were several layers of comforter and top sheet. 

“It’s like, three in the afternoon, shouldn’t he have eaten by now?”

“He’s on a schedule. He eats every four hours. I fed him an hour ago and put him down for a nap half an hour ago. Don’t try and police my parenting when you’re already a deadbeat. You know it’s funny that they say kids end up doing the opposite of their parents because here I am, actually parenting my child unlike my mother did with me, and here  _ you  _ are not even bothering to own up to the fact that it takes two to tango and Amy didn’t impregnate herself. I’m actually really glad that we didn’t use you as our sperm donor because then I’d have to worry about raising a son who wouldn’t have had any fucking empathy.”

“Yeah, well at least if I were a parent I wouldn’t need feel the need to overcompensate so much and actually tell my kid no because unlike your mother, mine actually gave me affection, so I wouldn’t have to try so fucking hard to make sure my kid likes me in the long run.”

“Why don’t you go fuck yourself? I don’t actually need you to babysit me — my mom only reassigned you to me so that she could isolate you so that you’d eventually quit. You’re not as essential to the campaign as you think you are. Probably more of a liability at this point since it’s well known you can’t keep it in your pants. Try not to fuck one of the teenagers volunteering on the campaign so you don’t end up as a registered sex offender.”

“You’re like a watered down version of your mother, you lack the brains and the looks though. It’s a shame.”  Dan responded as he shut the door behind him.

  
He couldn’t care less about anything Catherine had just said. At the end of the day,  _ he  _ would be the one making any decisions about whether or not he continued to be a part of this campaign. Selina would be out of her right mind to fire him. 

* * *

  
“Amy, when was the last time you took a nude photo?”  
  


Amy sputtered on the water she was drinking, not fully believing she had heard the question correctly. 

  
“Ma’am..”   


“It’s a serious question.” Selina replied as she sat down beside her, glasses perched on the edge of her nose as she scrolled through her phone.

“College, I think? I stopped doing that kind of shit when I knew I wanted to go into politics. Didn’t want to have to go through some revenge porn bullshit.”

 

It was funny how a simple question could unlock a memory she hadn’t thought of in years — the last person she had sent nudes to had been Dan, over a decade ago when cellphones were less advanced and photos were pixelated and essentially composed of the primary colors. It had been during the brief two or three months they had been sleeping together. Even then she’d known Dan was a dick, but never enough to post a woman’s photos. It had nothing to do with respecting women but more to do with the fact that at the time he had also sent her photos and she swore on both of their careers that if so much as a  _ pixel  _ from one of her photos made its way online, she would post every single photo he had ever sent her, without an ounce of regret. It was a lifetime ago and twenty year old Amy would  _ kill  _ thirty-six year old Amy for letting herself get entangled with him again.

 

“Why are you asking about my nudes?” Amy asked as she kicked off her heels and pulled her feet up beside her.

“I may or may not require your help in choosing some photos…”

“Jesus Christ, are you really that blinded by the fuck fog? You are not seriously considering sending nudes to one of your  _ rivals  _ while you’re in the midst of running for President, are you?”

“Lower your voice!” Selina hissed as she handed her phone to Amy before continuing. “First of all, Tom’s numbers are tanking — he’s going to drop by the end of the month. Secondly, he knows better than to leak anything I send him because he knows I will absolutely have him killed without a moment's hesitancy. And lastly, do you think I’m that fucking stupid? Anyone who sends a naked picture knows to crop out their face. Can’t say they’re mine if you can’t actually prove it.”

“Why are you asking me to help you choose these photos? Why not Gary?”   


“Gary  _ took  _ said photos. Besides, it’s not like you haven’t seen me naked before — you’ve helped me use tit tape to avoid a nip slip several times before. There’s not a single part of me that has gone unseen by you or Gary.”

“Other than your asshole.”

“You’ve seen my asshole — his name’s Andrew.”   


“Point taken.” Amy responded as she braced herself to look through the photos. 

 

Out of all of the things Selina had asked her to do for her throughout the span of the last decade, this couldn’t even be the worst of them. Compared to having to dry shave her legs beneath the table during a cabinet meeting and faking a miscarriage for her -- this was probably somewhere along the middle of her top ten moments and was mild best.    
  


Her relationship with Selina had been through the ringer, especially after she had quit right before the convention -- but they had put that behind them.  If helping her choose which racy photos to send her rival/lover/whatever the fuck he currently was to her was going to be the  _ worst _ of their relationship, she would absolutely take it over the years of berating she had endured.

 

“Amy, can I ask you a question?” Selina asked as she kicked off her heels and pulled her feet up beside her on the couch.

“I mean, you’ve already asked when the last time I took a nude was, so I don’t really think it can get worse than that.” She responded as she handed Selina her phone back. “I favorited the ones I think you should consider -- your tits look great in the ones in the black mesh.”

“Do you really want to have this baby or are you doing it to spite Dan? You’ve never struck me as the kind of woman who actually wanted to have kids.”

“I didn’t want kids. Then I got older and realized that other than work I didn’t have anything else in my life. Then the electoral tie happened and I thought that after that blew over maybe it’d be a good time to try and settle down.”

“With Buddy Calhoun though? Were you fucking body snatched?”

“He was there...and available.”

“Which Dan wasn’t, or is for that matter.”

“Dan slept with my sister while we were in Nevada and when I recently tried to talk to him about everything he told me he had a nineteen year old he was waiting to fuck, so no, he’s not fucking available.” 

“Men are garbage. I’m not going to give you advice on what to do with your situation because we both know my track record is also awful, but I do want you to know that as much of a cunt as I can be sometimes, I do want to be able to help you in anyway that I can. I have to lose this image of being a woman that hates other women...other women are intolerable at times but I don’t  _ hate _ them. I don’t think I do, anyway.”

“I do need to have next Tuesday morning off -- doctor’s appointment.”

“I’m glad I only had one kid because those goddamn doctor’s appointments were a pain in the fucking ass -- I’d rather have gotten fucked in the ass than have gone to so many appointments when I was pregnant, and I hate getting fucked in the ass. Take the whole day if you want, I think it’s a strategizing day or some shit. I don’t know what’s going on, I just know we’re off to California the next day.”

“Thank you, Ma’am.” Amy said as she stood from the couch and yawn.

“You can call me by my name, Amy. You don’t have to call me ma’am all the fucking time.”

“Right. Good night, Selina.”

* * *

 

“Are you fucking  _ kidding  _ me?”   


“Good morning to you too, sweetheart.” Dan said, smirking as he handed Amy a decaf latte.  

 

He watched as she narrowed her eyes at him before taking the cup from him. 

 

“Cinnamon, just how you like it.”

“Which intern did you fuck so they’d tell you where I was?” She asked, irate as he held the door open for her.   
  


He rolled his eyes before responding.    
  


“None. I’m not stupid, Ames. I put two and two together. Needing a morning off, a month and a half after telling me you’re pregnant with my demon sperm and deciding to keep it? Pretty obvious you’d be seeing an OBGYN.”

“I told you I don’t want you a part of this. I don’t need you to be a part of this.”

“Since when have I ever listened?”

“I cannot fucking stand you, do you know that?” 

“You don’t need to check in, I already signed in for you.”

“Why are you here, Dan?”

“I’ve been thinking.”

“Oh god, here we go.” She responded, rolling her eyes as she dropped down into one of the many empty chairs in the waiting room.

 

It was a little surprising to Dan that there were so many empty seats in the waiting room of an OBGYN in the middle of a podunk town in Iowa. He was pretty sure that people who lived in these sorts of towns had nothing better to do than fuck and reproduce. He was pretty sure he had seen several families toting around no less than four kids a piece in the time they’d spent in the state so far. 

 

“First, I just wanna say that between the two of us, I thought you were the one that was supposed to be more mature about shit. Getting Selina to reassign me to Catherine duty? Petty, even for you.”

“Uhm, first of all, Selina reassigned you on her own.” She responded, throwing her head back in laughter. “I couldn’t care less about what work you do for the campaign. My life doesn’t revolve around you.”

“Whatever, that’s not what I’m here about. I’m here about that little bun in the oven that might end up looking a lot like me when it makes its grand entrance in about five or six months, give or take.” 

  
Dan watched as Amy rolled her eyes again, putting her phone away to give him her full attention.

  
“I shouldn’t have told you to get an abortion. I’m all for a woman’s right to choose -- your body, your choice, all that bodily autonomy shit. I’m sorry, alright?”

“But?”

“No but, just an apology. I do wish you did give me a chance to actually think about whether or not I wanted to be a part of the process, instead of immediately demanding an answer and then getting mad when I said something you didn’t want to hear because I hadn’t had any time to really think about it.”

“And you’ve had time to think about it?”

  
Dan couldn’t help but laugh as she raised an eyebrow at him, crossing her arms as she did so.

  
“Being on Catherine duty gives a guy a lot of time to think. All she does is mope around and my biggest task is to make sure she doesn’t down a fucking bottle of sleeping pills, so there’s a lot of down time.”

“She’s depressed, Dan, of course she’s just fucking moping around.”

“This isn’t about Catherine. Anyway, we both know I’m not the ideal person to go through this process with, and we’re not the ideal people to be bringing a kid into the world...but I know you, and I know you’d rather do this with someone than do it alone. We’ve been a team when it came to work and we worked better together then, or I think I worked better when I had you around, but why can’t we be a team in this?  You just gotta have a little patience with me because we both know I’m not the easiest person to fucking put up with but I’m gonna try to unlearn some of my....less admirable qualities.”

“Like telling me when you’re going to fuck other women?”

“Yeah, like that.”

“I don’t know if I can believe you...but I’m going to give you a chance to make it up to me. I did spring this on you and I shouldn’t have expected you to immediately have an answer. You’re like a fucking deer in headlights when it comes to making decisions about your life too quickly so that’s on me, but any time I even tried to bring this situation up to you, you shot me down in ways that were above and beyond your usual prickishness. I’ve seen you be mean, I’ve engaged in it with you, but I’ve never had it directed at me...and it fucking hurt, okay?”

“Ms.Brookheimer, the doctor will see you now.”

* * *

 

She reluctantly allowed Dan to sit in on her exam. If he really wanted to be a part of the process, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to gauge his reaction to being in the room. Amy was relieved when the attending physician, Dr. Miller, was a man old enough to be both of their fathers -- meaning that she would never have to hear Dan make a comment about how he’d love to be examined. 

  
“When you had the last appointment before you came into town for work, did you have the ultrasound done?” Dr. Miller asked as he grabbed the bottle of gel.

“Yes.” Amy responded as she pulled up her blouse to reveal her lower abdomen. 

“Great, so you won’t be surprised at the stickiness of the gel.” 

“Oh, she’s good with cleaning up stickiness.” 

“You’re absolutely disgusting.”

  
It had taken a solid five minutes before Dan had made an inappropriate comment. Amy was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. 

 

“He must be the dad to be?” Dr. Miller laughed as he squirted the gel along her stomach.   


“His swimmers were allegedly slow, but here we are…” She mumbled in response as the doctor moved the wand along her skin. He paused and turned his attention to the monitor.   


“So it looks like you’re about sixteen weeks along, putting your due date around the end of June, beginning of July.” 

 

Amy watched as he typed away at the keyboard before a slight thumping sound filled the room.

 

“Heartbeat is strong. Did you want to know the gender?”   
  


She couldn’t help but look over at Dan, surprised to find him engrossed on what was happening on the monitor. 

  
“Yeah, I do. Might as well start getting things in order now because god only knows where I’ll be when I go into labor.”

“The second round of debates are then. We’ll be in Vermont.” Dan said as he looked through his calendar. 

“Well, it looks like you’ll be welcoming a little girl around then. The mister over there seems a little immature, so the prospect of raising a daughter should help straighten that out within the next few years.” Dr. Miller responded as he handed her a paper towel.

“A girl? What a relief. The thought of raising a little boy, spawned from Dan was absolutely horrifying.” She responded, laughing as Dan registered what had just left Dr. Miller’s mouth. 

  
It was absolutely karmic that Dan would decide that he  _ did  _ want to be a part of this process, only to find out that he’d be helping raise a daughter, after the amount of shit he’d done to the women who had had the misfortune of sleeping with him.

 

“You’ll need to take two pre-natal vitamins a day as opposed to one, but other than that you are all set. I know you travel a lot for work, so please feel free to reach out to the receptionist for a copy of your records if the next time you’re due for an appointment isn’t at a time when you’re here. And here’s a copy of the ultrasound for each of you.”

“Thank you, Dr. Miller.” Amy responded as she wiped the gel off of herself before grabbing the bottle of vitamins and the two copies of her scan.

“You’re free to go whenever you’re done here.” Dr. Miller responded before exiting the room.

 

Amy hopped off the exam table and walked over to Dan, thrusting his copy of the scan in front of him.   
  


“I don’t think you actually want this but here.” She said as she slipped her own copy into her purse with the vitamins.   


“We never finished our conversation from earlier.” Dan responsed, pocketing the ultrasound. He would probably trash it the moment he was out of her sight line.   


“We can finish it another day. This is a start for now.” She said as they headed towards the exit.

 

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to continue the conversation — she did. It was just that she didn’t want to finish it now, after finding out that her gut instinct had been right and that she was having a girl. She wanted to go back to the hotel and call her mother and maybe have a good cry before she continued the conversation with Dan. 

 

“Oh come on, Ames. Go back to the hotel, take a nap or something, then meet me in the lobby for dinner around seven, how does that sound?”

“Are you asking me out on a date?” She responded, raising an eyebrow as he stopped beside the rental she had gotten.

“You’re already pregnant, it can’t be much worse than that, I promise.” He responded, smirking.

“Fine. I’ll see you at seven.”


End file.
